Trump admin tries to kill the most indisputable evidence of human-caused climate change by shuttering observatory
The Mauna Loa laboratory in Hawaii has measured atmospheric carbon dioxide, which — along with other planet-warming pollution — has led directly to climate change, driving sea level rise, supercharging weather and destroying food systems.
The president's budget proposal would also defund many other climate labs, including instrument sites comprising the US government's greenhouse gas monitoring network, which stretches from northern Alaska to the South Pole.
But it's the Mauna Loa laboratory that is the most prominent target of the President Donald Trump's climate ire, as measurements that began there in 1958 have steadily shown CO2's upward march as human activities have emitted more and more of the planet-warming gas each year.
The curve produced by the Mauna Loa measurements is one of the most iconic charts in modern science, known as the Keeling Curve, after Charles David Keeling, who was the researcher who painstakingly collected the data. His son, Ralph Keeling, a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, now oversees collecting and updating that data.
Today, the Keeling Curve measurements are made possible by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration, but the data gathering and maintenance of the historical record also is funded by Schmidt Sciences and Earth Networks, according to the Keeling Curve website.
In the event of a NOAA shut down of the lab, Scripps could seek alternate sources of funding to host the instruments atop the same peak or introduce a discontinuity in the record by moving the instruments elsewhere in Hawaii.
In 1958, when the Keeling Curve began, the concentration of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere was 313 parts per million. In 2024, that had risen to 424.61 ppm, and this year, monthly average CO2 levels at Mauna Loa exceeded 430 ppm for the first time.
The proposal to shut down Mauna Loa had been made public previously but was spelled out in more detail on Monday when NOAA submitted a budget document to Congress. It made more clear that the Trump administration envisions eliminating all climate-related research work at NOAA, as had been proposed in Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for overhauling the government.
It would do this in large part by cutting NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research entirely, including some labs that are also involved in improving weather forecasting.
NOAA has long been one of the world's top climate science agencies, but the administration would steer it instead towards being more focused on operational weather forecasting and warning responsibilities.
CNN has reached out to NOAA and Scripps for comment.
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Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Thousands of mosquitoes are being dropped by drone over islands in Hawaii. Here's why
Editor's Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. In June, dozens of biodegradable pods fell from the sky over the forests of Hawaii. Each one, delivered by drone, contained about 1,000 mosquitoes. These weren't just any mosquitoes — they were non-biting, lab-reared male mosquitoes carrying a common bacterium that results in eggs that don't hatch when the males mate with wild females. The hope is that they will help to control the archipelago's invasive mosquito population, which is decimating native bird populations, such as rare Hawaiian honeycreepers. The birds, which are key pollinators and seed dispersers and also play a central role in Hawaiian culture, are in dire straits. There were once more than 50 known species of honeycreepers in Hawaii, but today there are only 17 left, most of which are endangered. Last year, the 'akikiki, a small gray bird, went functionally extinct in the wild, and less than 100 of the yellow-green ʻakekeʻe are estimated to remain. Development and deforestation have had an impact, but according to Dr. Chris Farmer, Hawaii program director for the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the 'existential threat' is avian malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes. The insects are not native to Hawaii, but were first reported in 1826, likely unintentionally carried over by whaling vessels. 'They caused waves of extinction,' says Farmer, as many native birds, such as the honeycreepers, had no resistance to the disease. Since mosquitoes thrive in the warmer tropical habitats in the low elevations of Hawaii's islands, the remaining honeycreepers found a refuge higher up in the mountains of islands such as Maui and Kauai, he explains. Now, this is changing. 'With climate change, we are seeing warmer temperatures and we're watching the mosquitoes move up the mountains,' he says. '(In places like Kauai) we're watching the populations of birds there just completely plummet.' 'It's a constant march of mosquitoes moving up as the temperatures allow them and the birds getting pushed further and further up until there's no habitat left that they can survive in. 'If we don't break that cycle, we're going to lose our honeycreepers,' he adds. Searching for a solution Conservationists have been searching for a solution to control mosquito populations and provide a lifeline to the honeycreepers. But dealing with mosquitoes on a landscape scale is difficult, says Farmer, who explains that the use of pesticides, for instance, would also damage native insect populations such as damselflies and fruit flies that are vital to ecosystems. Because mosquitoes are also such a huge threat to human health, spreading human malaria, dengue fever and the zika virus, among others, scientists have been studying the problem for decades, coming up with various solutions, including the incompatible insect technique (IIT). This involves releasing male mosquitoes that have a strain of naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia, which causes non-viable eggs when they mate with wild females. Over time, with repeated releases, the wild population should decline as a result. In 2016, ABC, together with Birds, Not Mosquitoes, a multi-agency partnership dedicated to protecting Hawaiian honeycreepers, decided IIT had the best chance of succeeding in Hawaii and started to investigate how to apply the same technique to mosquitoes transmitting avian malaria. 'The mosquito that transmits avian malaria is different from the one that transmits human malaria,' explains Farmer, so they began testing various strains of Wolbachia within the southern house mosquitoes found in Hawaii to determine which one was most effective. The process took several years, due to 'a combination of the science, community engagement and the regulatory process,' says Farmer, adding that, naturally, 'whenever you say, 'I want to release millions of mosquitoes in the forest,' people have a lot of very legitimate questions.' In 2022 they started ramping up production, rearing millions of mosquitoes with the chosen Wolbachia strain in a laboratory in California. The following year, they started releasing the insects in areas where the honeycreepers live in Maui, dropping them in biodegradable pods from helicopters. 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Buying time One of the major barriers to releasing the insects in Hawaii has been the remote, mountainous terrain, prone to strong winds and unpredictable weather. The program has had to rely mainly on helicopters for releases, but these are expensive to run and there are a limited number on the archipelago, with competing needs for firefighting, safety and tourism, says Farmer. Often, missions have had to be called off last minute due to weather, he adds. This is where drones come in. After months of testing the aerial vehicles in demanding conditions, checking their range, and designing protective, temperature-controlled parcels that can safely carry mosquitoes and be fixed onto the body, they successfully started deploying mosquitoes by drone in June. It is the 'first known instance of specialized mosquito pods being dropped by drones,' says Adam Knox, project manager for ABC's aerial deployment of mosquitoes. 'We have more flexibility with deployment timing in areas that generally have very unpredictable weather and it's safer because no humans need to ride in the aircraft to deploy the mosquitoes.' It also 'reduces costs, team flight times, emissions and noise, which in turn means cheaper, more sustainable deployments,' he adds. Farmer expects it to be a year or so before they will see the results of the deployments and whether the IIT technique is working. However, he is hopeful that it will help 'buy time' for the birds to recover. A recent study from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute found there is still time to save honeycreepers like the ʻakekeʻe from extinction if IIT mosquito control efforts are successful. Christopher Kyriazis, postdoctoral researcher from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and lead author of the report, told CNN that their modeling demonstrated the urgency of the situation: 'If you wait even a couple years, the window narrows really quickly.' While IIT is 'ambitious' and has never been used on this scale for these sorts of conservation aims before, he believes 'there is hope for the species, if it can be effective.' If mosquito populations were under control, there is the possibility that the honeycreepers would have time to replenish populations and with more genetic diversity, and may even develop their own resistance to avian malaria. There are already signs of that happening with one honeycreeper species, the 'amakihi, on Hawaii Island, says Farmer. However, Kyriazis cautions that 'even if a (protective) mutation did arise at this point, for it to be able to spread through the population fast enough to save it is very unlikely.' A safer environment would also give the opportunity to reintroduce captive populations of birds like the 'akikiki; although it is extinct in the wild, some are being bred at bird conservation centers in Hawaii. For Farmer, being at the forefront of this effort and seeing birds go extinct is 'soul shattering.' But it also drives him. 'We have the ability to save these species,' he says. 'If we don't save these birds in this decade, then they probably won't be here for the future. And so the ability to make a difference in the world, make a difference in the future, motivates us all.' Solve the daily Crossword
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Company involved in Coldplay KissCam drama hires Gwyneth Paltrow as spokesperson
BOSTON — Astronomer — the company whose CEO resigned after being caught on a KissCam at a Coldplay rock concert embracing a woman who was not his wife — is trying to move on from the drama with someone who knows the band pretty well. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who was married to Coldplay's frontman Chris Martin for 13 years, announced Friday on X that she has been hired by Astronomer as a spokesperson. Astronomer, a tech company based in New York, found itself in an uncomfortable spotlight when two of its executives were caught on camera in an intimate embrace at a Coldplay concert — a moment that was then flashed on a giant screen in the stadium. CEO Andy Byron and human resource executive Kristin Cabot were caught by surprise when Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd during a concert earlier this month. 'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' Martin joked when the couple appeared on screen and quickly tried to hide their faces. In a short video, the 'Shakespeare in Love' and 'Ironman' star said she had been hired as a 'very temporary' spokesperson for Astronomer. 'Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days and they wanted me to answer the most common ones,' Paltrow said, smiling and deftly avoiding mention of the KissCam fuss. 'We've been thrilled that so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation,' she said. 'We will now be returning to what we do best — delivering game-changing results for our customers.' When footage from the KissCam first spread online, it wasn't immediately clear who the couple were. Soon after the company identified the pair, and Byron resigned followed by Cabot. The video clip resulted in a steady stream of memes, parody videos and screenshots of the pair's shocked faces filling social media feeds. Online streams of Coldplay's songs jumped 20% in the days after the video went viral, according to Luminate, an industry data and analytics company.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Company involved in Coldplay KissCam drama hires Gwyneth Paltrow as spokesperson
BOSTON (AP) — Astronomer — the company whose CEO resigned after being caught on a KissCam at a Coldplay rock concert embracing a woman who was not his wife — is trying to move on from the drama with someone who knows the band pretty well. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who was married to Coldplay's frontman Chris Martin for 13 years, announced Friday on X that she has been hired by Astronomer as a spokesperson. Astronomer, a tech company based in New York, found itself in an uncomfortable spotlight when two of its executives were caught on camera in an intimate embrace at a Coldplay concert — a moment that was then flashed on a giant screen in the stadium. CEO Andy Byron and human resource executive Kristin Cabot were caught by surprise when Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd during a concert earlier this month. 'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' Martin joked when the couple appeared on screen and quickly tried to hide their faces. In a short video, the 'Shakespeare in Love' and 'Ironman' star said she had been hired as a 'very temporary' spokesperson for Astronomer. 'Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days and they wanted me to answer the most common ones,' Paltrow said, smiling and deftly avoiding mention of the KissCam fuss. 'We've been thrilled that so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation,' she said. 'We will now be returning to what we do best — delivering game-changing results for our customers.' When footage from the KissCam first spread online, it wasn't immediately clear who the couple were. Soon after the company identified the pair, and Byron resigned followed by Cabot. The video clip resulted in a steady stream of memes, parody videos and screenshots of the pair's shocked faces filling social media feeds. Online streams of Coldplay's songs jumped 20% in the days after the video went viral, according to Luminate, an industry data and analytics company.
